here's hope
by the good old days
Summary: Here's to changing the story. Here's to bigger and brighter days. ::a collection of pairings as we wait for the release of HoH; spoilers:: current – —PercyAnnabeth. We can burn brighter than the sun, dear. So let's set the world on fire. / or, we are young & that's all we need to be.
1. if i just lay

**here's hope**

_summary: _Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

–—NicoAnnabeth (pre The Lost Hero)

* * *

side notes: All requests from _alligator skies _will be carried onto here ; I wanted to do a NicoAnnabeth just because Annabeth said she felt nothing for him ; I finished MoA at almost 11:30 last night hehe.

* * *

**one. if i just lay [here]**

In the calm before the storm, you lie with a boy in the grass and stare at the stars and gods that are not there.

He points out Zeus, Poseidon, Hades—their Roman forms: Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto—but you see nothing. You're holding hands and it feels almost not really maybe quite alright. You think about how, in Roman form, Pluto was much more respected and Poseidon was not—because you're just so symbolic or something like that.

Nico di Angelo, king of ghosts, son of the god of the dead, best friends with death—he makes you feel like the most alive person in the entire world. You wonder what trickery this is.

.

You want to ask Annabeth Chase how long this will last. You think you love her but you're really still a child so what do you know? Hades always gets the worst lot.

You kiss her instead. She tastes like strawberries.

.

You wonder how lonely or odd you have to be to fall in love with the son of the dead. Because you are falling in love, aren't you, Annabeth Chase?

Nico di Angelo kisses you, and now you're more confused than ever.


	2. this loneliness depresses me

**here's hope**

_summary: _I am so lonely, she sighs. I know, he answers with a snarl in his voice and a sharpness to his teeth. It makes you desperate.

–—OctavianReyna (pre Son of Neptune)

* * *

side notes: for **KnivesAndPens13** ; terribly sorry this wasn't up sooner ; hugs and kisses ; gaah i just forgot the review replies

**a glimmer in the night**: Thank you, darling. Multi-ship all the way;)

**Ten-Faced**: Thank you! ^_^ But MoA will leave you in a puddle of feels on the floor. No lie.

**KnivesandPens13**: This isn't as romantic as I'd thought it would come out to be...

**xLittle Black Star**: I mutli-ship in this fandom. I know, I'm terrible. I mean, of course I'm die-hard Percabeth, but. I mean. Come on. This is Percy. He's just so shippable and shit and so is Annabeth just because.

* * *

**two. this loneliness depresses me**

I want to know all of your secrets, he says.

She scowls.

.

Their relationship is completely platonic—that is a lie. I could lie some more to you but that, of course, is pointless. So I may as well give you the truth.

It starts when a muscular, tall boy—no, I promised that I would not lie; this boy is young and scrawny and ambitious—approaches a girl. The girl is brave and powerful and, of all things, lonely.

Hello, says the ambitious boy who craves power. He supposes it's smart to make friends with a praetor, rather genius—he never thought of being her lover. Not that this girl in particular would ever take one.

.

When the powerful girl starts dating the boy with the high expectations, the scrawny one becomes enraged. I hope he breaks your fragile little heart, he spits in a fit of anger. And yet he wonders why not many people stick around.

.

How do you like it now? the boy asks. Jason is gone. You're stuck with me.

She grumbles, No one said I had to be happy about it.

He takes the girl's jaw with his hand so he can read her eyes. No, he says, they didn't.

He smirks. She scowls.


	3. stars in the sky

**here's hope**

_summary: _Sometimes she swears he's from her past. Sometimes he swears she'll be his future.

-—LeoHazel (post Mark of Athena)

* * *

side notes: for **Ten-Faced **and terribly overdue, i might add. also, i hope you've read moa now. xp but yeah this idk i wrote it in ten minutes so sorry for it

** AwesomeSauz: **Um, I apologize?

**Payson-Nicky-forever: **This is a collection of pairings, but if I remember and if there's inspiration, I'll write you something in one of my other oneshot collections. Cool?

**WildCitrusSunflower: **Man, Octavian is just great.

**sunny: **aw bby :3

**Star**: have i called you star before? idk but it's a short version so. yes. percy and korra do not even need to exist on the same planet okie. shall i make you ship nicoannabeth, though? hmm.

* * *

**three. stars in the sky [that shine]**

He likes the way she laughs.

It's a full sort of laugh—the kind that makes you want to join in, so that you draw it out and it doesn't ever, ever stop. It's a tinkling sort of laugh, like wind chimes, or a bird's sort of laugh, if a bird could do such a human thing. He thinks it's good that she finds his terrible jokes amusing, because his says them often enough to be his trademark trait, and she laughs enough at them to make him feel like he's soaring. She could make him feel anything.

There's a smile in her laugh, currently. It flickers there, sometimes, on and off—he knows this because he can hear it in her voice. Her voice gets lighter, brighter, and so does he.

He's a flame, an inferno—and nothing can extinguish him.

.

She likes his smile.

It's like the sun—burning, blazing, bright. It's eternal.

Sometimes she says _Sammy_, though, and it's not a conscious thought—it never is, no, not really—and he doesn't frown, no, but his eyes do. They droop a bit, recede a little more into his soul. _Oh,_ she wants to say but doesn't, _but I love your smile. Smile for me._ But she doesn't and the smile is still on his face but not in his eyes. Probably he wonders how she can see two people at once, but this isn't the case; she's in two places at once, the past and the present, and sometimes it gets hard to distinguish the two.

Other times, though, she uses the correct name and his smile—she's blinded by it. She wonders how so much joy could be packed into one person, one being, one mortal. It's amazing. He's amazing, dazzling, breathtaking.

She doesn't tell him this, of course, because his ego is already big enough without her complimenting him. She does, however, say, "Leo, I love you," with earnesty, and he whips out a ring and they both don't worry about anything at all, least of all the future.


	4. never let you in

**here's hope**

_summary: _She falls head-first into love, and scowls.

-—JasonPiper (during the lost hero/pre son of neptune), mentioned JasonReyna

* * *

side notes: for **TWIX27**,who i will convert. but wow idek what this is tbh.

**sunny: **aw again you're so sweet.

**Star**: sighs hey i do love a challenge i think. i like lukabeth, but then again i like everything. yeah i've noticed. i think rick gets attatched to his characters and all of his pairings are his otps and this is why he never breaks them up. yeah. headcanon! i don't write _all _angsty dark things, but i guess that's been my current theme going?

**universalpowa:** i am going to take that as a compliment. (: thanks for all your reviews, favorites, etc.

**Ten-Faced:** yes i have done something right! (; yeah me too but then i wrote it and oh look fluffiness.

* * *

**four. never let you in**

She is a daughter of Aphrodite at heart.

Piper McLean wonders what is so special about a son of Jupiter, what talents he could possess that allows him to crawl under her skin, into her heart, and make a home there. Perhaps it is his looks—he is quite attractive, with those sky blue eyes that pierce into her soul. Or maybe her personality won her over—has she felt so deprived of her father's love that she will fall for anyone of the opposite gender who is polite and dedicated? (She researched inferiority complex once, and Piper decides on and off that she has it.)

Still, she falls head-first into love, and scowls. It's an out-of-sorts thing for her to do, but she can't tell what is real anymore—and, for all intents and purposes, she needs _this _to be real. Piper doesn't know what she'll do if it isn't. She is, after all, a daughter of love. And who ever heard of a daughter of love being heartbroken and not having any affections returned?

.

He is a son of Jupiter, a man of Rome—full of honor and courageous to a fault.

Jason Grace doesn't really understand love. He's a serious and dutiful leader, which means he doesn't need distractions like love. But there's an image of a girl in his head, he can't put a name to her face, and it makes his heart beat faster in his chest. When he tries to think on this, his head hurts and—no, love is not for leaders, and certainly not for Roman leaders.

Passion, perhaps, would be a suitable replacement. Jason wonders what he feels when he sees Piper, since he cannot tell nor understand the differences between love and passion. His heart beats in his chest, true, but with Piper his mind goes fuzzy and it doesn't matter about his past, just the present. It's hard to think, to form coherent sentences and words and thoughts and actual _dialogue_—and, even though he is a leader, he needs her by his side, even if this hinders him.

He wonders what those from home would think at this—a great man falling to his knees at the word of a beautiful woman—and decides that, surely, they would presume him spellbound. They, of course, would be correct.


	5. when stars come out

**here's hope**

_summary: _We can burn brighter than the sun, dear. So let's set the world on fire.

-—PercyAnnabeth (post mark of athena)

* * *

side notes: i didn't feel like writing percabeth tbh but i was like hey why not so i just did

**WildCitrusSunflower: **aw thanks.

**Star**: eww you and hey i told you that i ship literally everything so you cannot get mad. you are correct with that, though. the mary-sueness. yes reyna is pretty badass and she is just all-around greatness. yes actually he was sort of like 'oh they're high school age might as well pair them up that's what teenagers do anyways'.

**Ten-Faced:** aw yuss.

**OrikamiGirl: **hooray for writing.

* * *

**five. when stars come out**

Tartarus is a dark place; naturally, where there is an absence of light, a drop in temperature follows. Still, they are part human and their teeth chatter loudly. For a while, that is the only sound they hear apart from their shallow breaths. Then comes the monsters—they make a racket equivalent to the fear of death times ten. No, death is an easy thing now; there are beings here who have been killed many times over and _oh, isn't this pair of demigods such a treat, indeed_?

_I'm scared_, Annabeth thinks but doesn't voice, suddenly a little girl again and, oh, monsters are real, are they? She may be a better fighter than her younger self, but she is just as frightened and lost and confused and _why does this happen to me_?

_Will we survive? _Percy wants to ask but he's not _that _stupid—no, no, no. He supposed to be his girlfriend's rock and how is he supposed to do that if he is _doubting that they will make it out of this damned place alive_?

When the savages come—and they do, in tens and thousands and this will be a _long _day, _long _night, won't it?—Percy holds Annabeth's face in his hands and he says, "I love you," so many times that it stops feeling like a promise of at least one of them surviving and starts sounding like a mantra, like a prayer to the gods that will go unanswered. Then, she kisses him with fervor because it might be the last one she'll ever get and it's only logical to boost both of their morale.

Percy takes out his sword—trusty sword don't fail me now—and the bronze shines in hell like the sun shines over the world. Annabeth's dagger is dimmer, yes, but the effect is the same.

They kill and kill and dust litters the black floors and the glint of their weapons could be mistaken for a supernova.


End file.
